Two sides

Part 1

A city where everyone ignored the truth until it came time for their family to suffer the most traumatic loss, the loss of their daughter.

Tate Avery had met Matteo Rodriguez in school as they were both truly passionate about finding the mastermind behind all the murders that had been going on around them. Police always dismissed this due to a lack of evidence. However, the two boys were persistent. They had started their investigation when they were 15  but never found the killer because, after 3 years of investigation, the killer stopped killing which led them to believe the killer had either been locked up or even better died. Unfortunately, that was not the case. 

June 5th 1952

Both boys were both skating around the neighborhood on their last day of high school after skipping their graduation ceremony. They stopped dead in their tracks as they stumbled upon a trail of maggots leading them to the other side of the road. They heard the same lullaby playing from a distance as they had previously heard when they found their fellow neighbor Mikayla Jones's body. When they looked at the body, they were soon able to identify it as classmate Antoinette Carson's body. This sight horrified them knowing that they had just seen her the day before. They had seen the horrifying damage done to her body and knew she must've suffered before dying. Tate had pulled out his camera from his bag to note the damage done to her body as Matteo called the authorities.

Matteo's pov

As Tate and I skated to his house to reopen our investigation, I was full of rage. We had thought our community was finally a safe place but we were wrong. I felt horrible knowing that we had let her down. She was the one person who didn't make fun of me for spending so much time invested in finding the killer. Her death just gave me more motivation to find the sick son of a bitch who has been tormenting the city for years. We knew this wasn't a new random killer because back when we first started our investigation Tate noticed that the killer had a signature. They would mark their victims by leaving behind a chess piece while writing "checkmate" on their forehead with the victim's blood.  But who would want to kill Antoinette? She was the sweetest, smartest, most loving girl I knew. 

 I really enjoyed her company. I felt like we had started to share a loving connection. I had planned to ask her if she would like to be my girlfriend. Clearly, those plans were no longer an option. 

Tate's pov

My life had gotten so much better since the killings had stopped, I felt like I had made somewhat of a change, and finally, Matteo and I could live our normal teen lives together with no worry whatsoever. We thought today was gonna be one of Matteo's best days as he was finally going to ask Antoinette to be his girlfriend after liking her for over a year. 

I knew from the moment we saw her corpse lying on the side of the road that Matteo's life had shattered. For a while, we came to the conclusion that the killer was a man in his late 30s but seeing Antionette's state and knowing she had been tortured made us conclude that this kill was personal and that the killer may have been a woman out to get rid of her biggest threat to getting to Matteo, but after a while of thinking it made no sense to us because that would mean she was only 8 when she committed her first murder. This all led us back to where we started. All I knew was that I wasn't giving up until I got revenge, seeing Matteo in the state he was in was killing me. 

Tate and Matteo stayed up all night with their investigation until they noticed a connection between all four victims. All 4 girls who had gone missing had been in some way involved with Matteo. Mikayla Jones was Matteo's neighbor with whom he would spend all his days, Anastasia Adams was Matteo's middle school girlfriend, Sabrina Jennings was in love with Matteo for the longest time, and lastly, Antionette Carson was the girl Matteo was crazy for.  Although Matteo had dated someone before even meeting Antionette he knew he had only ever loved Antoinette. He could not stop thinking about her. Ever.  This brought up their theory again... Was Matteo specifically targeted?

" There's no way... is it because I've been closely following his every move ?"

" I doubt it, if so he would have gone after the both of us... I think this is more than that, vengeance? Possibly jealousy" Tate said as he gave Matteo a worried look " If this theory is correct, you are in serious danger" 

Matteo's pov

I won't lie, I was afraid. Who would want to target people in my life? This meant the one person I was trying to protect this entire time was the one person who was in the greatest danger...My sister. If anything were to happen to her I would never forgive myself. I had to take action immediately. Tate and I ran to my house to find my sister and tell her what was going on. As I ran home all I could think was about saving my sister. We got to my house to find her peacefully sitting on the living room floor watching a movie. I let out a sigh of relief as I hugged her tightly.

" Camila listen to me closely, has anyone followed you "

"Not that I know of...Matteo what is this about "

As I was about to tell her I felt Tate grab my arm and give me a look of disapproval.

" Just wait here, " I said as I pulled Tate aside

" What was that about ?"

" Don't tell her, you'll just end up making her paranoid. We need to keep this between us, the more people know the easier it is for them to be in danger, remember we don't know who the killer is yet... He could be closer to us than you think."

" Fine I guess you're right, he could be anyone, and telling people just increases the risk of him finding out that we know" I sigh as I go back to my sister and hug her once more

" Forget what I said, I was just being stupid."